The 2019 Atlantic hurricane season officially began the day before yesterday, and it behooves those living in vulnerable coastal areas to start taking steps early on to prepare for potential power outages, closed roads and stores, and problems pertinent to their homes and locations. Last year Hurricanes Florence (category 4) and Michael (category 5) slammed through the Carolinas and the Florida panhandle respectively, each causing more than 50 deaths and around $25 billion in damage. Although there were 15 named tropical storms in 2018 and most of them flourished and floundered in the open Atlantic waters, all it takes is one to thoroughly mess up your life. As for 2019, AccuWeather's official forecast is for 12-14 named storms and 5-7 hurricanes, with 2-4 of them being major. The El Niño effect, which tends to create wind shear that limits tropical storm development, should be present through the main hurricane months of August, September, and October...but they're not completely sure on this. And on their map of more likely landfalls, the Florida peninsula is highlighted in red...here's a link to that AccuWeather forecast: [AccuWeather]...
In 2019 so far, Andrea briefly formed last month near Bermuda in the western Atlantic as a subtropical storm, becoming the first named storm of the year. Here are the names for 2019:
Andrea, Barry, Chantal, Dorian, Erin, Fernand, Gabrielle, Humberto, Imelda, Jerry, Karen, Lorenzo, Melissa, Nestor, Olga, Pablo, Rebekah, Tanya, Van, Wendy
May none of these names gain infamy for representing storms causing loss of life or catastrophic damage. But we haven't been so fortunate the last couple of years with Atlantic tropical systems...best to keep up with what's going down in the area...
Monday, June 3, 2019
Sunday, June 2, 2019
Trump, Meghan, Nasty, and Royalty
This is starting to sound like a broken record: I'm no fan of President Trump, but...
In advance of President Donald Trump's visit to Great Britain next week, he was interviewed by some Brit journalist and asked about Meghan Markle, the American actress who married Prince Harry and last month gave birth to their first child. Markle, it was revealed to Trump, had made some disparaging comments about him as a candidate during the 2016 campaign and the interviewer wanted the President's reaction. Trump replied, repeatedly expressing his goodwill and support for the new Duchess of Sussex and that he hadn't heard anything about earlier criticism from her. At the end he used the word "nasty" to describe the comments that he only just heard of secondhand from the interviewer. And now you would have thought he was insulting the entire British royalty by his comment, which I thought he was provoked into making...
Whatever negative things you might want to say about Donald Trump, he has always made himself available for interviews and has been willing to address questions head-on without evasion. The journalist in this interview kept prying at him for some kind of interesting reaction about Meghan Markle, and Trump wouldn't oblige...the "nasty" remark was blown way out of proportion, just to make him look bad. Although I think he has a low moral compass and seems think the universe revolves around himself, as an American I am sick and tired of folks on the other side of the Atlantic acting as if we're somehow obligated to kiss up to their royalty and all the rituals and rules associated with it...didn't we fight a war of independence to break away from that nonsense? So go ahead, Britain, and deride our president with your asisine big orange balloon and keep showing that clip of him actually standing in front of the queen at one point...I'll say it right now: I couldn't care less about British or any other brand of royalty...to me there is much more nobility and dignity in the masses of people...be they in America, Great Britain, or elsewhere...who have to get out of bed each morning to go to work in order to take care of themselves and their families than a small group of folks born with silver spoons in their mouths who expect the rest of their society to enrich and practically worship them. So Brits, thanks a lot for actually making me have to stoop to the level of defending Donald Trump...
In advance of President Donald Trump's visit to Great Britain next week, he was interviewed by some Brit journalist and asked about Meghan Markle, the American actress who married Prince Harry and last month gave birth to their first child. Markle, it was revealed to Trump, had made some disparaging comments about him as a candidate during the 2016 campaign and the interviewer wanted the President's reaction. Trump replied, repeatedly expressing his goodwill and support for the new Duchess of Sussex and that he hadn't heard anything about earlier criticism from her. At the end he used the word "nasty" to describe the comments that he only just heard of secondhand from the interviewer. And now you would have thought he was insulting the entire British royalty by his comment, which I thought he was provoked into making...
Whatever negative things you might want to say about Donald Trump, he has always made himself available for interviews and has been willing to address questions head-on without evasion. The journalist in this interview kept prying at him for some kind of interesting reaction about Meghan Markle, and Trump wouldn't oblige...the "nasty" remark was blown way out of proportion, just to make him look bad. Although I think he has a low moral compass and seems think the universe revolves around himself, as an American I am sick and tired of folks on the other side of the Atlantic acting as if we're somehow obligated to kiss up to their royalty and all the rituals and rules associated with it...didn't we fight a war of independence to break away from that nonsense? So go ahead, Britain, and deride our president with your asisine big orange balloon and keep showing that clip of him actually standing in front of the queen at one point...I'll say it right now: I couldn't care less about British or any other brand of royalty...to me there is much more nobility and dignity in the masses of people...be they in America, Great Britain, or elsewhere...who have to get out of bed each morning to go to work in order to take care of themselves and their families than a small group of folks born with silver spoons in their mouths who expect the rest of their society to enrich and practically worship them. So Brits, thanks a lot for actually making me have to stoop to the level of defending Donald Trump...
Saturday, June 1, 2019
My May 2019 Running Report
In May I ran a total of 130 miles, missing three days...the longest single run was 8.1 miles. I ran the May Day Glow Run 5K on the 4th (in the evening) in Jonesville, a few miles west of Gainesville off Newberry Road. As the year progresses into the summer months, the temperatures are rising...we've seen them spike into the 100s this past week. So when I do go outside to run around my neighborhood I am careful to take short walking breaks throughout my runs as well as carry a low-sugar sports drink with me for rehydration as I go along. Healthwise I don't see anything impeding me from continuing along with my running, and I would like to increase my endurance by the fall season to half-marathon level again. In June there are no public races here other than the weekly Depot Park 5K Parkrun, held each Saturday morning at 7:30 at that east Gainesville park. It's free but you need to preregister at their website to obtain the barcodes necessary to record and post your finishes. Here's a link to that site: [Parkrun]. I've run it twice so far this year...it's just tough for me, more an afternoon/evening person...to get up that early on a Saturday morning to run a race. My main running emphasis in June, though, will be to get out and run some of my own personally-designed courses at a more subdued pace...and pile up the mileage while being careful about the heat. In years gone by, I used to report for work later in the afternoon, according me more time for longer runs...my reporting time now is 1:30 pm, so I've often had to curtail my runs just to get to work on time. Looks like I'll just have to start getting up and out earlier if I want to increase my mileage...
Friday, May 31, 2019
Quote of the Week...from Mitch McConnell
The American people should have a voice in the selection of their next Supreme Court justice.
---Mitch McConnell
The United States Senate's majority party has been Republican for the last two years of the Obama presidency and for all of Trump's so far. Kentucky's Mitch McConnell has been majority leader the entire period and has ruled his caucus with a tight rein, demanding strict party loyalty on the vast majority of votes. And "his" senators have by-and-large meekly complied like sheep with his whims, basically turning the Senate into a one-man legislative body. In February of 2016, United States Supreme Court justice Antonin Scalia, a strong conservative, unexpectedly passed away, leaving a vacancy. Within three hours of the announcement, before President Obama could even talk with him about it, McConnell issued a press release stating that he would not consider any Obama appointment to fill the seat and that it would be filled by the winner of the coming November election after he or she took office. The above quote was made during this period...Barack Obama, who actually WAS the American people's duly-elected president at the time, still submitted federal judge Merrick Garland as his nominee. But McConnell snubbed Garland's attempts to meet with him and Charles Grassley, the Senate Judiciary chairman, refused to hold confirmation hearings. The rest is history: Republican Donald Trump won the election, the Republicans retained control over the Senate, and Neil Gorsuch filled Scalia's seat instead of Garland. Now fast forward to today in 2019 with the 2020 campaign and election looming ahead. I've previously suggested on this blog that should another vacancy occur on the Supreme Court during 2020, Mitch McConnell would weasel out of his so-called "principled" rationale for blocking Obama's 2016 nominee and instead push through a Trump replacement nominee. So when he was questioned about this last week in Paducah, Kentucky, he confirmed my suspicions by stating precisely that...
I know that many, many people keep political score on the United States Supreme Court composition and how the tally of conservatives vs. liberals will tilt the balance regarding strongly divisive issues, some of which carry enormous weight with different people and their associated interest groups My problem is that on some things I'm on the conservative side and on others I'm more to the left. I don't have any phobia about an "unbalanced" Court wrecking our country and our rights, but I do believe that when the political leaders responsible for processing its nominees are only interested in playing that numbers game for their own "side" and switch from principle to expediency whenever it suits them, then the system becomes corrupted and everybody eventually loses out when they lose respect for the process...and consequently the Court rulings when they are issued. I never did like McConnell because of his naked hypocrisy on this and other issues...can't the Republicans come up with anyone better to lead them? I can think of several in the Senate who would do a better job. As far as I can tell, conservatives and liberals alike despise him...Rush Limbaugh even derisively refers to him as "the Turtle"....
---Mitch McConnell
The United States Senate's majority party has been Republican for the last two years of the Obama presidency and for all of Trump's so far. Kentucky's Mitch McConnell has been majority leader the entire period and has ruled his caucus with a tight rein, demanding strict party loyalty on the vast majority of votes. And "his" senators have by-and-large meekly complied like sheep with his whims, basically turning the Senate into a one-man legislative body. In February of 2016, United States Supreme Court justice Antonin Scalia, a strong conservative, unexpectedly passed away, leaving a vacancy. Within three hours of the announcement, before President Obama could even talk with him about it, McConnell issued a press release stating that he would not consider any Obama appointment to fill the seat and that it would be filled by the winner of the coming November election after he or she took office. The above quote was made during this period...Barack Obama, who actually WAS the American people's duly-elected president at the time, still submitted federal judge Merrick Garland as his nominee. But McConnell snubbed Garland's attempts to meet with him and Charles Grassley, the Senate Judiciary chairman, refused to hold confirmation hearings. The rest is history: Republican Donald Trump won the election, the Republicans retained control over the Senate, and Neil Gorsuch filled Scalia's seat instead of Garland. Now fast forward to today in 2019 with the 2020 campaign and election looming ahead. I've previously suggested on this blog that should another vacancy occur on the Supreme Court during 2020, Mitch McConnell would weasel out of his so-called "principled" rationale for blocking Obama's 2016 nominee and instead push through a Trump replacement nominee. So when he was questioned about this last week in Paducah, Kentucky, he confirmed my suspicions by stating precisely that...
I know that many, many people keep political score on the United States Supreme Court composition and how the tally of conservatives vs. liberals will tilt the balance regarding strongly divisive issues, some of which carry enormous weight with different people and their associated interest groups My problem is that on some things I'm on the conservative side and on others I'm more to the left. I don't have any phobia about an "unbalanced" Court wrecking our country and our rights, but I do believe that when the political leaders responsible for processing its nominees are only interested in playing that numbers game for their own "side" and switch from principle to expediency whenever it suits them, then the system becomes corrupted and everybody eventually loses out when they lose respect for the process...and consequently the Court rulings when they are issued. I never did like McConnell because of his naked hypocrisy on this and other issues...can't the Republicans come up with anyone better to lead them? I can think of several in the Senate who would do a better job. As far as I can tell, conservatives and liberals alike despise him...Rush Limbaugh even derisively refers to him as "the Turtle"....
Thursday, May 30, 2019
Weekly Short Stories: 1947 Science Fiction, Part 2
I continued my examination of some of the best in short science fiction from 1947, using the anthology Isaac Asimov Presents The Great SF Stories 9 (1947). The four stories I've reviewed below deal respectively with extraterrestrial contact, a secret invention, sense of identity, and the atom bomb...themes that are common in science fiction short stories. Here are those stories...
TINY AND THE MONSTER by Theodore Sturgeon
Most alien visitation stories don't begin in the sunny Caribbean, but this one does. In the Virgin Islands a dog...Great Dane by breed...disappears from its owner Alec for a few hours and then returns subtly changed, if you can call being able to read subtle. Events seem to mysteriously conspire leading Tiny to be sent to Miss Alistair Forsythe, a metallurgical scientist by profession who lives a little upstate from New York City off the Hudson. Tiny seems to be the manipulator of events, and what does he have in mind for Alistair...no, I am not going to spoil the story. Tiny and the Monster, like just about all Theodore Sturgeon stories, are character-intensive and care as much about their relationships as they do the often quirky sci-fi themes that would arise in his fertile imagination...
E FOR EFFORT by T. L. Sherred
Ed, a frustrated small-time, shady entrepreneur stumbles across a small theater run by Miguel, or Mike as it is anglicized. The movie he sees there is historical, about the encounter between Cortez and Montezuma, with remarkable detail in spite of the low-budget film it is using. It comes out early on in the story that Mike has invented a machine through which one can view anything that has ever happened anywhere. So what do Ed and Mike stupidly do with it? They make and distribute blockbuster historical movies, which work out fine for them...especially with the gobs of money they earn...until they make films about the U.S. Civil War and the two World Wars (and their causes). This is an example of something I've harped upon before: if you have an ability or special access to something that gives you a unique advantage over the rest of the world, then the last thing you should want to do is go about publicizing it...especially when by doing so you are telling people that they can hold no secrets from you. I gave up on Ed and Mike's foolishness early in the story, but it's a worthwhile examination about the limitations of our so-called "free" society...
LETTER TO ELLEN by Chan Davis
A young biological engineer/scientist is working on a special project with his friend and colleague to create special forms of life while their supervisor keeps the specifics of their ultimate goal secret from them. One day the colleague sneaks around and discovers the answer, turning their project upside-down and causing a lot of introspection about their own identities. This relatively brief story is presented in the form of a letter the young man is writing to Ellen, his love interest...
THE FIGURE by Edward Grendon
Only five pages long, The Figure fits with that type of short story that builds up to the climactic and paradigm-shifting final knockout sentence. Three scientists are teamed up to invent a special form of time machine that can extract something from the future and bring it back. Suddenly it's revealed by the narrator, one of the three, that the other two decided to "go fishing" and probably won't come back. Why did they leave? One clue: the narrator touches upon the sudden population explosion of roaches and other bugs following nuclear detonations, especially with the ones in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. I don't know whether this really happened or not, but the author certainly made it seem real...
More about short science fiction from 1947 next week...
TINY AND THE MONSTER by Theodore Sturgeon
Most alien visitation stories don't begin in the sunny Caribbean, but this one does. In the Virgin Islands a dog...Great Dane by breed...disappears from its owner Alec for a few hours and then returns subtly changed, if you can call being able to read subtle. Events seem to mysteriously conspire leading Tiny to be sent to Miss Alistair Forsythe, a metallurgical scientist by profession who lives a little upstate from New York City off the Hudson. Tiny seems to be the manipulator of events, and what does he have in mind for Alistair...no, I am not going to spoil the story. Tiny and the Monster, like just about all Theodore Sturgeon stories, are character-intensive and care as much about their relationships as they do the often quirky sci-fi themes that would arise in his fertile imagination...
E FOR EFFORT by T. L. Sherred
Ed, a frustrated small-time, shady entrepreneur stumbles across a small theater run by Miguel, or Mike as it is anglicized. The movie he sees there is historical, about the encounter between Cortez and Montezuma, with remarkable detail in spite of the low-budget film it is using. It comes out early on in the story that Mike has invented a machine through which one can view anything that has ever happened anywhere. So what do Ed and Mike stupidly do with it? They make and distribute blockbuster historical movies, which work out fine for them...especially with the gobs of money they earn...until they make films about the U.S. Civil War and the two World Wars (and their causes). This is an example of something I've harped upon before: if you have an ability or special access to something that gives you a unique advantage over the rest of the world, then the last thing you should want to do is go about publicizing it...especially when by doing so you are telling people that they can hold no secrets from you. I gave up on Ed and Mike's foolishness early in the story, but it's a worthwhile examination about the limitations of our so-called "free" society...
LETTER TO ELLEN by Chan Davis
A young biological engineer/scientist is working on a special project with his friend and colleague to create special forms of life while their supervisor keeps the specifics of their ultimate goal secret from them. One day the colleague sneaks around and discovers the answer, turning their project upside-down and causing a lot of introspection about their own identities. This relatively brief story is presented in the form of a letter the young man is writing to Ellen, his love interest...
THE FIGURE by Edward Grendon
Only five pages long, The Figure fits with that type of short story that builds up to the climactic and paradigm-shifting final knockout sentence. Three scientists are teamed up to invent a special form of time machine that can extract something from the future and bring it back. Suddenly it's revealed by the narrator, one of the three, that the other two decided to "go fishing" and probably won't come back. Why did they leave? One clue: the narrator touches upon the sudden population explosion of roaches and other bugs following nuclear detonations, especially with the ones in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. I don't know whether this really happened or not, but the author certainly made it seem real...
More about short science fiction from 1947 next week...
Wednesday, May 29, 2019
Freckles, 2005-2019
Our precious mixed-breed rescue dog, Freckles, passed away today from organ failure at the age of 14...we're all in a state of grief over her departure, but also remember with great fondness the span of her long life and time with us. This has to have been one of the sweetest dogs in history, and how fortunate for us that she entered our lives in the summer of 2005. Here is a reprint from an article I wrote on this blog about her eleven years ago...
Wednesday, May 14, 2008
Freckles, Cuddles, and Taffy
Two summers ago, we adopted Freckles (above), a mixed-breed puppy, for my daughter as a advance-birthday present that year. Gainesville has a non-profit organization called Puppy Hill Farms that takes in abandoned animals, cares for them, and puts them up for adoption. Freckles was already spayed when we got her from them. We weren't too sure how big she would grow, but she finally slowed her growth down to where she is about 55 pounds. Freckles is a very high-spirited, lively dog who loves to play with tennis balls or sticks, as well as having her belly rubbed. At the beginning, we took her to obedience classes, where she learned a few commands. Freckles apparently had some traumas before Puppy Hills Farms took her in, because she becomes petrified at the sight of any truck or the sound of any running machinery. Freckles has an older "sister" in Cuddles, another mixed-breed dog that we've had since 1997 (as my son's dog). While Freckles seems to have some greyhound and Aussie shepherd in her, Cuddles is more like a dachshund/basset hound combo and is stocky and close to the ground (but very fast when she wants to be). We adore our dogs. A year ago, Taffy, our miniature poodle, passed on after nineteen happy years with us. I love dogs, and I am not particular about breeds, either. If you live in a place that allows pets, I recommend adopting a mixed breed dog from one of the adoption agencies. Our lives have been enormously enriched by ours! Last month, our veterinarian picked Freckles as the pet of the month (entitling her to a free bath and nail-clipping)! Here are pictures of Cuddles (left) and a very young Taffy (with me, right):
Tuesday, May 28, 2019
Congress Taking Yet Another Whole Week Off from Work
For many of us we enjoyed the Memorial Day weekend off from work while honoring those who fell in war to protect our freedoms. Many worked as well...but we're all anticipating returning to our normal work schedules today, the day after Memorial Day...right? Wrong! Our elected national Congress has scheduled the entire week of Memorial Day off...after all, I guess they think they work so hard on our behalf that they need the extra time...not! I find it more than a little disconcerting that the Senate Majority Leader keeps complaining about the Democrats holding up Trump's nominations and bills, yet the Senate takes off 17-18 full weeks per calendar year...and that doesn't include the weekends. The House of Representatives takes even more days off, missing many Mondays and Fridays. I suppose the rationale for this is that members need to return to their respective states and districts to keep in touch with the people they represent...if this were only so. Instead, I see party leaders tightly holding their caucuses together in lock-step votes on most issues presented on the floor instead of the members themselves voting according to their own individual consciences and convictions. I'm sure that when the Senate finally gets around to reconvening on Monday afternoon of June 3rd, Senator McConnell will return to bemoaning how far behind the Senate is with its work...well, dude, if you're so concerned about getting things done then why don't you show up for work like the masses of people you claim to represent? I'm going to work this afternoon, but politicians apparently believe they need a whole week to recover from a holiday...I guess they're just better people than us ordinary folk...
Monday, May 27, 2019
Recently Read Article About Repelling Mosquitos
Since I cancelled my subscription some time back to my local newspaper and have little patience with my local or national TV news, I've come to rely more...for better or for worse...on my MSN newsfeed that pops up on my computer screen upon activation. Sometimes they have helpful articles about different topics they picked up off other sites: the one I just read about ways to repel mosquitos is good example. It was a Prevention magazine piece written by Korin Miller and Markham Heid and listed a few ideas that might be of use. In Gainesville we're bordered on the south by a vast wetlands area called Payne's Prairie...it's the size of our fair city and is a prime breeding zone for those horrible, obnoxious insects that really begin to plague us around this time of the year. Right now, it would be more appropriate to rename this area Lake Alachua, which it used to be called a century ago before the waters receded considerably. When the wind is blowing in from the south...a common occurrence this time of year, it blows all those nasty little buggers breeding there over to the city, regardless how careful folks here are to avoid any sources of standing water around themselves (this was one of the article's suggestions). So like it or not, mosquitos are a fact of life that we folks in Gainesville have to deal with. Miller and Heid emphasized that with the advent of the dangerous mosquito-borne West Nile and Zika viruses, repelling them is advised for everyone. Some ideas from the article:
Try to stay out in breezes (or use electric fans to stir up the air).
Avoid the outdoors during dusk and dawn when mosquitos are the most active.
Use DEET (rub on the skin, not spray). This is the active agent common to many effective mosquito repellents sold in stores, with the concentration affecting the time span of its effectiveness.
Stay cool and avoid sweating...mosquitos are attracted to the hormones within perspiration.
Wear tight or lightly-colored clothes.
Avoid things like exercise, alcohol, or spicy foods that tend to increase metabolic rate and consequently carbon dioxide production...mosquitos go for CO2 in a big way.
Get plants like citronella, lavender, lemongrass, marigolds, and basil that repel mosquitos.
Get your yard sprayed for mosquitos.
Avoid scented products.
I appreciate all the above suggestions by Korin Miller and Markham Heid, although to me exercise is often a major component of going outside, and twilight running is preferable to running in the heat of the day...especially one like today when the temperature is topping 100. Of course, the act of running itself automatically sets up a breeze around me, so that's good...as long as I remain in motion, that is. But if I'm going to just sit out there in the shade...or maybe do a little evening stargazing...I definitely plan to start slapping on some of that repellent...
Try to stay out in breezes (or use electric fans to stir up the air).
Avoid the outdoors during dusk and dawn when mosquitos are the most active.
Use DEET (rub on the skin, not spray). This is the active agent common to many effective mosquito repellents sold in stores, with the concentration affecting the time span of its effectiveness.
Stay cool and avoid sweating...mosquitos are attracted to the hormones within perspiration.
Wear tight or lightly-colored clothes.
Avoid things like exercise, alcohol, or spicy foods that tend to increase metabolic rate and consequently carbon dioxide production...mosquitos go for CO2 in a big way.
Get plants like citronella, lavender, lemongrass, marigolds, and basil that repel mosquitos.
Get your yard sprayed for mosquitos.
Avoid scented products.
I appreciate all the above suggestions by Korin Miller and Markham Heid, although to me exercise is often a major component of going outside, and twilight running is preferable to running in the heat of the day...especially one like today when the temperature is topping 100. Of course, the act of running itself automatically sets up a breeze around me, so that's good...as long as I remain in motion, that is. But if I'm going to just sit out there in the shade...or maybe do a little evening stargazing...I definitely plan to start slapping on some of that repellent...
Sunday, May 26, 2019
NBA, NHL, Soccer Seasons Winding Down for 2019
I just witnessed the Toronto Raptors come from a two-to-nothing deficit to win four straight games over the favored Milwaukee Bucks, claiming their first ever National Basketball Association Eastern Conference title...they'll be starting their league championship series against the Golden State Warriors this Thursday evening, the 30th of May. I've come to enjoy watching this team play, not only because of their superstar Kawhi Leonard but also for their unselfish team play...my favorite player is Kyle Lowry, who's gone through a lot with this team over the years and is finally getting his due recognition. For the Raptors/Warriors series, I don't especially care who wins, just that the games are close and the series lasts a while...
In hockey, the NHL playoffs have also reached the stage of the final series to determine their Stanley Cup champion. The survivors to this point are Boston...my favorite in the playoffs after Tampa Bay dismally failed in their opening series...and St. Louis, who surprised a few by coming back and knocking out San Jose in their last series. The Blues have never won the Stanley Cup and the Bruins would like to add another...should be fun to watch when I have the opportunity...
The various pro team soccer leagues from different countries have mostly finished their seasons. In England Manchester City won their second straight Premier League title by a single point over Liverpool, while in Germany's Bundesliga Bayern Munich survived a scare from Borussia Dortmund to claim yet another championship...in England and Germany (as well as most other leagues) there are no postseason playoffs: the regular season champ IS the champ. Mexico's top league, however, not only has a playoff system they call the Liguilla, but they do it twice a year...as I write this the very final match is on to determine the 2019 Clausura Liguilla champion. UANL Tigres, which I've consistently followed and supported over the last five years, is looking to gain its fourth Liguilla title against Leon, which finished this regular season with the league's best record. Meanwhile, Major League Soccer, a spring-to-fall league composed of American and Canadian teams, is in the middle of its season: there's plenty more soccer throughout the summer!
And once basketball and hockey are finished with their playoffs, I'll basically be left with Major League Baseball and Major League Soccer to follow through the summer months. I haven't been paying much attention to baseball...may that will change once the other sports are through with their seasons...
One other thing: in team professional soccer, the vaunted Champion's League for Europe will stage its championship match next Saturday, June 1 to determine the continent's best team for the year. It will be an all-England finale pitting London's Tottenham against Liverpool: the site will be Madrid, Spain...should be exciting to watch...
In hockey, the NHL playoffs have also reached the stage of the final series to determine their Stanley Cup champion. The survivors to this point are Boston...my favorite in the playoffs after Tampa Bay dismally failed in their opening series...and St. Louis, who surprised a few by coming back and knocking out San Jose in their last series. The Blues have never won the Stanley Cup and the Bruins would like to add another...should be fun to watch when I have the opportunity...
The various pro team soccer leagues from different countries have mostly finished their seasons. In England Manchester City won their second straight Premier League title by a single point over Liverpool, while in Germany's Bundesliga Bayern Munich survived a scare from Borussia Dortmund to claim yet another championship...in England and Germany (as well as most other leagues) there are no postseason playoffs: the regular season champ IS the champ. Mexico's top league, however, not only has a playoff system they call the Liguilla, but they do it twice a year...as I write this the very final match is on to determine the 2019 Clausura Liguilla champion. UANL Tigres, which I've consistently followed and supported over the last five years, is looking to gain its fourth Liguilla title against Leon, which finished this regular season with the league's best record. Meanwhile, Major League Soccer, a spring-to-fall league composed of American and Canadian teams, is in the middle of its season: there's plenty more soccer throughout the summer!
And once basketball and hockey are finished with their playoffs, I'll basically be left with Major League Baseball and Major League Soccer to follow through the summer months. I haven't been paying much attention to baseball...may that will change once the other sports are through with their seasons...
One other thing: in team professional soccer, the vaunted Champion's League for Europe will stage its championship match next Saturday, June 1 to determine the continent's best team for the year. It will be an all-England finale pitting London's Tottenham against Liverpool: the site will be Madrid, Spain...should be exciting to watch...
Saturday, May 25, 2019
Space Program is Each President's Political Toy
I find it pretty frustrating that with each new administration in Washington our space program gets turned topsy-turvy as the incoming president almost always has a different emphasis and ideas as to where he wants to go with it. With the last four presidents, Bill Clinton cared little about getting humans out of near-Earth orbit while George W. Bush set into motion plans for a more powerful rocket to take us back to the moon...this time for a permanent base...while retiring the Space Shuttle. Barack Obama then abruptly ended that, breaking a campaign promise he had made to Floridians just before the 2008 election, and changed the emphasis to outsourcing rocket-building and the manned space programs to private firms like Space X and focusing instead on going to Mars and the Asteroids much further into the future. And now Donald Trump has steered the program back to the moon, with the idea of establishing businesses there as well as a platform to eventually make trips to the Red Planet. Although I am totally on board with our current president's program...and each president does have undue influence over our space efforts since NASA is an agency within the Executive Branch...I also am skeptical that it will stay in place beyond his tenure in office. Whoever succeeds him, I'm sure, will want to put their own personal stamp on the space program...something I find extremely counterproductive as it causes massive changes of our goals every few years. No wonder we've been stuck having to depend on the Russians to launch our own astronauts into space for so long! We desperately need to be able to make our space program not such a political toy for each president to play with...and wreck in the process. In this I am referring primarily to manned exploration and settlement of other worlds, efforts that need a continuity of bipartisan political support spanning many years for them to bear any fruit. Naturally, I'm hearing next-to-nothing about this problem in the already-overheated, much-too-early presidential race from the other candidates. Here's an issue on which that I can stand with Trump...unfortunately, his program may be doomed if he loses the 2020 election just because he himself pushed it...if he loses, his successor will doubtless turn around and change everything once again. Sigh...
Friday, May 24, 2019
Quote of the Week...from Yogi Berra
Make a game plan and stick to it. Unless it's not working. ---Yogi Berra
Yogi Berra was a Hall of Fame catcher and fantastic hitter for the New York Yankees during my early childhood when they were tearing up the baseball world as a fixture in the World Series from year to year, winning several of them along the way. Later on he tried his hand at managing with mixed results. What many remember him the most for, however...besides his many Yoo-Hoo TV commercials...was his sense of humor and ability to twist the English language like a pretzel, creating ludicrous contradictions in many of his sayings, like "Ninety percent of the lies they're telling about me aren't true" or "I'd give my right arm to be ambidextrous". Sometimes, though, he would come up with something that for most sounded ridiculous, but upon thinking about it a little would actually contain some profound wisdom...like the above quote, for example...
Yogi was a baseball man and it's natural that he would term advance strategizing as "a game plan", and in sports as will as other endeavors it only makes common sense to know up front what you're going to do before commencing with it. There will almost always be a few bumps at the start...but if your strategy is well thought out it's probably in your best interests to stick with it. But in competitive environments the opponent not only has his own game plan, but is also adjusting to yours in order to render it ineffective. Still, even without an adversary to throw a monkey wrench into all your well-laid plans, the pervasive nature of chaos as it can overtake any undertaking (ooh, that's sounds like something Yogi might say) demands that tactics and priorities must change along with the often-confusing changes going on around. Besides, in a game or a project, you only have so much information to start with...the flood of input soon into it can be daunting and it's probably a good idea to stick to your guns until you can adequately process it all. But if it's become clear that your strategy is a complete exercise in futility, why not then ditch it and try something new? Yogi, you never let me down with your wisdom...
Yogi Berra was a Hall of Fame catcher and fantastic hitter for the New York Yankees during my early childhood when they were tearing up the baseball world as a fixture in the World Series from year to year, winning several of them along the way. Later on he tried his hand at managing with mixed results. What many remember him the most for, however...besides his many Yoo-Hoo TV commercials...was his sense of humor and ability to twist the English language like a pretzel, creating ludicrous contradictions in many of his sayings, like "Ninety percent of the lies they're telling about me aren't true" or "I'd give my right arm to be ambidextrous". Sometimes, though, he would come up with something that for most sounded ridiculous, but upon thinking about it a little would actually contain some profound wisdom...like the above quote, for example...
Yogi was a baseball man and it's natural that he would term advance strategizing as "a game plan", and in sports as will as other endeavors it only makes common sense to know up front what you're going to do before commencing with it. There will almost always be a few bumps at the start...but if your strategy is well thought out it's probably in your best interests to stick with it. But in competitive environments the opponent not only has his own game plan, but is also adjusting to yours in order to render it ineffective. Still, even without an adversary to throw a monkey wrench into all your well-laid plans, the pervasive nature of chaos as it can overtake any undertaking (ooh, that's sounds like something Yogi might say) demands that tactics and priorities must change along with the often-confusing changes going on around. Besides, in a game or a project, you only have so much information to start with...the flood of input soon into it can be daunting and it's probably a good idea to stick to your guns until you can adequately process it all. But if it's become clear that your strategy is a complete exercise in futility, why not then ditch it and try something new? Yogi, you never let me down with your wisdom...
Thursday, May 23, 2019
Just Finished Reading A Separate Peace by John Knowles
When I recently bought John Knowles' novel A Separate Peace (for 25 cents) at a local used book sale, I didn't recall that I had actually read it before. But as I went through it, the text seemed more and more familiar...making me conclude that it was probably one of those high school English class reading assignments that I had stashed away in the deep, dark recesses of my memory. It's a story about two boys attending a private prep school in New Hampshire in 1942 as World War II raged in the news and shortages and restrictions made themselves more and more felt around them, and with military service looming ahead of them upon graduation. Gene, the first-person narrator, is the more introverted and cautious while "Finny" (from Phineas) is extroverted and impulsive. The story quickly evolves as an examination of their friendship and its nature: Gene finds himself a follower of Finny's exploits, eventually feeling resentment at the latter's apparent view of him as being little more than just an extension of his own dominating personality. The rift between the two is kept hidden and unexpressed until...well, here's where I let you, the potential reader of this novel, find out for yourself what happens...
It is that determination that some have to dominate and submerge others in their relationships...and the other party's unhappy and irrational acquiescence to such an inequitable and demeaning arrangement, that impressed me the most with A Separate Peace. All throughout my life I have experienced people who, like Finny, seem to think that there's only one narrative to display interest in: their own, and that it is supposedly up to me to simply lay down my own sense of identity, interests, and values and follow them in everything they say and do. To which I say: screw that! If you haven't read this 1959 book by John Knowles, I recommend it to you. But why not save the quarter I spent on it and just check it out for free from the library? One warning, though: although it is a short novel, it is also pretty disturbing...
It is that determination that some have to dominate and submerge others in their relationships...and the other party's unhappy and irrational acquiescence to such an inequitable and demeaning arrangement, that impressed me the most with A Separate Peace. All throughout my life I have experienced people who, like Finny, seem to think that there's only one narrative to display interest in: their own, and that it is supposedly up to me to simply lay down my own sense of identity, interests, and values and follow them in everything they say and do. To which I say: screw that! If you haven't read this 1959 book by John Knowles, I recommend it to you. But why not save the quarter I spent on it and just check it out for free from the library? One warning, though: although it is a short novel, it is also pretty disturbing...
Wednesday, May 22, 2019
Weekly Short Stories: 1947 Science Fiction, Part 1
This week I moved forward one year in my reviews of past science fiction short stories to 1947...far bygone, to be sure, but still close enough that many alive then are still around now (including Stephen King, born in that year). The book I drew upon is Isaac Asimov Presents The Great SF Stories 9 (1947)...this series spans the years 1939-63 in short sci-fi. Here are my reactions to the first four stories in this "year's best" anthology...
LITTLE LOST ROBOT by Isaac Asimov
To fully grasp this story you need to understand a little about Isaac Asimov's created fictional universe, especially with regard to robots. In the not-so-distant future, robots, positronically-powered, are all android in nature and have achieved a great level of sophistication. There has been popular backlash against them, and partially as a response all robots are programmed to adhere to the Three Laws of Robotics...the first and foremost being that a robot can never cause harm to a human, either by direct action or through neglect. In a remote hyperatomic-driven space base, robotics psychologist Susan Calvin is brought in the solve a mystery, that of a missing robot that had part of its First Law amended to allow it to work in high-radiation zones with humans. The missing robot has concealed itself among 52 other normal, unaltered robots. Dr. Calvin's task is to figure a way to discover which one of the 53 is the hidden robot...all will need to be destroyed should she fail in her mission. This is as much a detective mystery story as it is science fiction, and Asimov proudly admitted as much...
TOMORROW'S CHILDREN by Poul Anderson
A bleak tale of the worldwide apocalypse on many levels following a planetary nuclear war two years earlier. Hugh Drummond, the protagonist, is an American military officer sent on a mission to discover the extent of the postwar damage, and he returns to the de facto President in Taylor, Oregon...the new national capital "city"...to deliver the somber news. It isn't just the immediate death and destruction caused by the explosions or the massive social upheavals...the radiation has permeated everything on Earth, forever changing the future of humanity in the most fundamental ways. This story came out while the United States had monopoly control over the nuclear bomb, two years after Hiroshima and Nagasaki. But just two years later the Soviet Union would explode their first atomic weapon and Anderson's foreboding tale would take on a greater sense of meaning and urgency...
CHILD'S PLAY by William Tenn
One of the grosser short science fiction stories I've read and reminiscent of some earlier works by Lewis Padgett, Child's Play has no connection with the horror movie series starring the evil little doll Chucky. Instead, an ordinary, insecure lawyer in a firm gets a mystery gift delivered to his door in the form of a large box. Inside are instructions and ingredients for a child's educational toy: Build-a-Body. He learns, through reading the instructional booklet, all there is about constructing other life forms, including humans. Discovering that he can make twins of people, he decides to "copy" the gorgeous secretary who just threw him over for a colleague. But there's a tall, menacing-looking man trying to find him...our lawyer hero knows his "present" came from the future and this dude is out to retrieve it: he'd better hurry with his plans. I figured out the ending for this story too early...but the premise was interesting although quite a bit disturbing...
TIME AND TIME AGAIN by H. Beam Piper
A dying military officer on the battlefield in World War III...year 1975...gets a special injection that sends him back to his 13-year-old body and New Hampshire home in 1945, but complete with all his memories from the intervening years. Knowing what's to come, he has to come clean with his father about his situation...his intent is to alter history over the next few years so that the war never materializes. Time and Time Again is clearly about time travel, but toward the end goes more into a speculative conversation about the nature of consciousness and its relationship to the "now" as it passes through the chronology of years. Interesting ideas, although the story didn't adequately explain itself, in my opinion...
More from 1947 in the world of excellent science fiction short stories next week...
LITTLE LOST ROBOT by Isaac Asimov
To fully grasp this story you need to understand a little about Isaac Asimov's created fictional universe, especially with regard to robots. In the not-so-distant future, robots, positronically-powered, are all android in nature and have achieved a great level of sophistication. There has been popular backlash against them, and partially as a response all robots are programmed to adhere to the Three Laws of Robotics...the first and foremost being that a robot can never cause harm to a human, either by direct action or through neglect. In a remote hyperatomic-driven space base, robotics psychologist Susan Calvin is brought in the solve a mystery, that of a missing robot that had part of its First Law amended to allow it to work in high-radiation zones with humans. The missing robot has concealed itself among 52 other normal, unaltered robots. Dr. Calvin's task is to figure a way to discover which one of the 53 is the hidden robot...all will need to be destroyed should she fail in her mission. This is as much a detective mystery story as it is science fiction, and Asimov proudly admitted as much...
TOMORROW'S CHILDREN by Poul Anderson
A bleak tale of the worldwide apocalypse on many levels following a planetary nuclear war two years earlier. Hugh Drummond, the protagonist, is an American military officer sent on a mission to discover the extent of the postwar damage, and he returns to the de facto President in Taylor, Oregon...the new national capital "city"...to deliver the somber news. It isn't just the immediate death and destruction caused by the explosions or the massive social upheavals...the radiation has permeated everything on Earth, forever changing the future of humanity in the most fundamental ways. This story came out while the United States had monopoly control over the nuclear bomb, two years after Hiroshima and Nagasaki. But just two years later the Soviet Union would explode their first atomic weapon and Anderson's foreboding tale would take on a greater sense of meaning and urgency...
CHILD'S PLAY by William Tenn
One of the grosser short science fiction stories I've read and reminiscent of some earlier works by Lewis Padgett, Child's Play has no connection with the horror movie series starring the evil little doll Chucky. Instead, an ordinary, insecure lawyer in a firm gets a mystery gift delivered to his door in the form of a large box. Inside are instructions and ingredients for a child's educational toy: Build-a-Body. He learns, through reading the instructional booklet, all there is about constructing other life forms, including humans. Discovering that he can make twins of people, he decides to "copy" the gorgeous secretary who just threw him over for a colleague. But there's a tall, menacing-looking man trying to find him...our lawyer hero knows his "present" came from the future and this dude is out to retrieve it: he'd better hurry with his plans. I figured out the ending for this story too early...but the premise was interesting although quite a bit disturbing...
TIME AND TIME AGAIN by H. Beam Piper
A dying military officer on the battlefield in World War III...year 1975...gets a special injection that sends him back to his 13-year-old body and New Hampshire home in 1945, but complete with all his memories from the intervening years. Knowing what's to come, he has to come clean with his father about his situation...his intent is to alter history over the next few years so that the war never materializes. Time and Time Again is clearly about time travel, but toward the end goes more into a speculative conversation about the nature of consciousness and its relationship to the "now" as it passes through the chronology of years. Interesting ideas, although the story didn't adequately explain itself, in my opinion...
More from 1947 in the world of excellent science fiction short stories next week...
Tuesday, May 21, 2019
Game of Thrones and Avengers: Endgame: To Spoil or Not to Spoil
There are two series, one on television and the other on the big screen, that have closed out just recently with their final episodes: Games of Thrones and Avengers. I haven't followed either...I only saw Iron Man, featuring Robert Downey, Jr. as the eventual Avengers superhero, and managed to see part of one of the Thrones episodes when I happened to get a free sneak preview of HBO, the series that carries it, on my cable service. But I have read author George R.R. Martin's The Song of Ice and Fire, on which Game of Thrones is based, all the way through the latest and fifth book and have for several years awaited the next installment. Incredibly, Martin assented to allow the HBO series to continue all the way to the conclusion, with different characters dying out and others rising to the ascendancy...none of which he has yet revealed in his book series. Now I'm determined to boycott any more books by this author, series-related or not: that's NOT how to treat your loyal reading base, dude!
Since I'm washing my hands of Martin's fantasy series, I don't suppose then that it should matter how the television Games of Thrones ends, but I still find it pretty disconcerting to be exposed to all the plot spoilers that have spontaneously appeared on social media and even from sources that should know better than to reveal things which others are waiting to discover for themselves. Contrast this with the Avengers final movie Endgame, for which there seemed to be a near-universal agreement among fans not to divulge how it ended. Yet with Game of Thrones I hear...without asking for it...how many parents had named their daughters Daenerys and now are going to have to live with that decision. Or how Taylor Swift, judged by an popular magazine to be one of the "100 most influential people in the world", has been greatly influenced by Arya Stark. Here is where fiction gets a little muddy...which is more surreal: Taylor Swift being influential on any level or fictional character Arya Stark's reality to her? In any event, fans of this series are getting themselves all knotted up over the different characters and that final episode...to them I say: get a life, or at least some semblance thereof, until you can get yourselves hooked on the next fad HBO series. And by the way, believe it or not, not everyone on Earth is necessarily following the same crap you're so engrossed in...
Since I'm washing my hands of Martin's fantasy series, I don't suppose then that it should matter how the television Games of Thrones ends, but I still find it pretty disconcerting to be exposed to all the plot spoilers that have spontaneously appeared on social media and even from sources that should know better than to reveal things which others are waiting to discover for themselves. Contrast this with the Avengers final movie Endgame, for which there seemed to be a near-universal agreement among fans not to divulge how it ended. Yet with Game of Thrones I hear...without asking for it...how many parents had named their daughters Daenerys and now are going to have to live with that decision. Or how Taylor Swift, judged by an popular magazine to be one of the "100 most influential people in the world", has been greatly influenced by Arya Stark. Here is where fiction gets a little muddy...which is more surreal: Taylor Swift being influential on any level or fictional character Arya Stark's reality to her? In any event, fans of this series are getting themselves all knotted up over the different characters and that final episode...to them I say: get a life, or at least some semblance thereof, until you can get yourselves hooked on the next fad HBO series. And by the way, believe it or not, not everyone on Earth is necessarily following the same crap you're so engrossed in...
Monday, May 20, 2019
Disappointed With Current Alternative Music "Hits"
I've expressed before on this blog that my popular music tastes tend to focus on alternative/indie rock, which in the past has produced many memorable songs and brought my attention to several talented, inspired acts. Of late, however, I have noticed that the most popular alternative hits are insipid songs that musically display little creativity. Instead, the performers seem like they are competing on those TV reality talent shows I avoid like the plague and which are so popular in this era. It hasn't always been like this...as a matter of fact, I didn't notice the change within the genre until around three years ago. The other day I was listening to Google Play's Alternative Hotlist, which plays the current rotation of chart-toppers in alternative music...and after an hour of wincing and grimacing finally gave up and switched to one of their artist-oriented channels. You see, if you want to hear music of the general type of a particular act you like, you just enter the act's name and their algorithm will create a station around it. I chose Radiohead, and found myself sighing with relief as one song after another was played that resonated with me. Unfortunately, almost all of them were songs from the past...is anybody coming out with anything interesting these days? I have to search high and low for a current song that doesn't bore me to tears...
Sunday, May 19, 2019
About Yesterday's Preakness and the Riderless Horse
After yesterday's Preakness Stakes race at Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore, my main reaction was totally unexpected...and it regarded the last-place horse, Bodexpress. At the race's beginning, Bodexpress threw off its rider John Velazquez...and most everyone around expected the horse to simply trot off to the side, slow down, and be diverted off the track. Instead, Bodexpress decided to hang with the rest of the horses racing and stayed in the middle-back of the pack, only fading at the very end to last place. Of course, not having a jockey's weight on top of you can help you immensely with how fast you want to go, but I think that Bodexpress was simply reverting to his horse instincts of running along with the herd. It also became apparent to me that had this horse actually wanted to win the race, he could easily have done so...making me conclude that it's the rider's professional duty to instill that unnatural winning urge within the horse being ridden, even if it takes some cruel-looking whipping to accomplish this. Of course, had Bodexpress managed to finish first it wouldn't have counted since there are strict weight amounts each horse must carry...
War of Will, who was interfered with at the crucial point in the Kentucky Derby by Maximum Security, causing the latter's disqualification but no redress for the former's misfortune, hugged the inner rail throughout the Preakness and pushed on through at the end to win it. The favorite, Improbable, finished in the middle of the pack and was never a factor in the outcome...just before the race I found out that jockey Mike Smith had never ridden Improbable and was thus at a big disadvantage...especially since this horse had a reputation for getting very skittish at the starting gate (which it was once again). Now for the Belmont Stakes, the Third Jewel in this year's already divided-up Triple Crown. I hope War of Will runs in it, and I have a further suggestion: load up Bodexpress with the same weight the other horses have and run him without a jockey! Probably not going to happen, though...the jockeys' union would most definitely file a grievance...
War of Will, who was interfered with at the crucial point in the Kentucky Derby by Maximum Security, causing the latter's disqualification but no redress for the former's misfortune, hugged the inner rail throughout the Preakness and pushed on through at the end to win it. The favorite, Improbable, finished in the middle of the pack and was never a factor in the outcome...just before the race I found out that jockey Mike Smith had never ridden Improbable and was thus at a big disadvantage...especially since this horse had a reputation for getting very skittish at the starting gate (which it was once again). Now for the Belmont Stakes, the Third Jewel in this year's already divided-up Triple Crown. I hope War of Will runs in it, and I have a further suggestion: load up Bodexpress with the same weight the other horses have and run him without a jockey! Probably not going to happen, though...the jockeys' union would most definitely file a grievance...
Saturday, May 18, 2019
Preakness Today, With Only Four from Kentucky Derby
Sports writer Neil Greenberg, in his May 15 article for the Washington Post, mentioned that with today's Preakness Stakes at Pimlico race track in Baltimore, Maryland, it will be the first time in 23 years that the Kentucky Derby winner did not participate in the second jewel of horse racing's Triple Crown...and the first time in 68 years that none of the top three finishers in that first race competed in the Preakness. Add to that the fact that the first horse to cross the finish line in the Derby, Maximum Security...disqualified from a foul due to the Kentucky Racing Commission's postrace inquiry...will not be running today, either. The result is a large-but-depleted field of thirteen in the Preakness, with only four horses who ran in the Kentucky Derby scheduled to run...
Improbable, one of successful trainer Bob Baffert's horses and who officially finished fourth in the Kentucky Derby, is the early favorite to win the Preakness. Mike Smith, who rode Justify (another Baffert thoroughbred) to Triple Crown glory last year, will be Improbable's jockey. War of Will, with the number one post position in this shortest of the Triple Crown races, was the horse involved in the foul that disqualified Maximum Security and is given favorable odds as well. I'm not seeing anything standing out to me from the other eleven horses, so I'm just going to look at these two...besides, how can you miss with Bob Baffert and Mike Smith on the same team?
The projected post time for the Preakness today is 6:48 pm and the preliminary weather forecasts show a slight chance of rain, but nothing like the precipitation that thoroughly muddied the Kentucky Derby track two weeks ago. NBC-Sports (Gainesville Cox Channel 33) will show pre-race analysis and hype from 2 to 5 pm, and from 5 on the regular NBC channel will pick up the programming. I'm planning to watch the race, but not the hype...
Improbable, one of successful trainer Bob Baffert's horses and who officially finished fourth in the Kentucky Derby, is the early favorite to win the Preakness. Mike Smith, who rode Justify (another Baffert thoroughbred) to Triple Crown glory last year, will be Improbable's jockey. War of Will, with the number one post position in this shortest of the Triple Crown races, was the horse involved in the foul that disqualified Maximum Security and is given favorable odds as well. I'm not seeing anything standing out to me from the other eleven horses, so I'm just going to look at these two...besides, how can you miss with Bob Baffert and Mike Smith on the same team?
The projected post time for the Preakness today is 6:48 pm and the preliminary weather forecasts show a slight chance of rain, but nothing like the precipitation that thoroughly muddied the Kentucky Derby track two weeks ago. NBC-Sports (Gainesville Cox Channel 33) will show pre-race analysis and hype from 2 to 5 pm, and from 5 on the regular NBC channel will pick up the programming. I'm planning to watch the race, but not the hype...
Friday, May 17, 2019
Quote of the Week...from Albert Einstein
The difference between stupidity and genius is that genius has its limits. ---Albert Einstein.
Can we all agree that Albert Einstein, the author of the incredibly complex and paradigm-shifting General Theory of Relativity, was a genius? And that a lot of the folks we see around us (not our own selves, naturally) seem pretty stupid? Well, that usage of "genius" and "stupidity" isn't what the groundbreaking physicist had in mind, in my opinion. Rather I think he was making a profound point: each of us has our "genius" moments and our "stupid" stretches, whether we're deemed to be smart or not. That's certainly true for me as I look back on my life. My "Eureka!" experiences pale in significance and scale compared to all of the dunderhead blunders I've committed...yet there's something almost divine or supernatural during those rare instances when everything seems to come together into focus and a new, foundational idea or principle occurs to me. I've noticed this probably the most in the past during my usually frustrating experiences in school, especially during different math classes in which the teacher would stand at the front of the students presenting the material and suddenly, out of the blue, I would "get it". Like Einstein, I was generally a mediocre-to-average math student (although I consistently scored high in it on the various standardized tests we students were subjected to) ...and I'm not too happy with the quality level of teaching I was dealt in school regarding this field. But I digress...
Sometimes a genius moment doesn't involve understanding or creating a complex idea...it can be the opposite when I figure out how to simplify things to a level that makes my life more manageable. Being a person of routine, I am looking for ways to integrate the various things I want to accomplish within the framework of a day or week...not abstract physics, but still something that involves the management of chaos, to a degree. And that's where I think most of the genius of humanity is expressed: not in great works of art, music, literature, engineering, or science, but rather in the multitude of adjustments, discoveries, and innovations people make in their daily lives, ingenious little things that generally go unnoticed by the rest of the world. Yet I sadly acknowledge that, in the midst of all this good stuff, the stupidity I see in that world seems limitless...
Can we all agree that Albert Einstein, the author of the incredibly complex and paradigm-shifting General Theory of Relativity, was a genius? And that a lot of the folks we see around us (not our own selves, naturally) seem pretty stupid? Well, that usage of "genius" and "stupidity" isn't what the groundbreaking physicist had in mind, in my opinion. Rather I think he was making a profound point: each of us has our "genius" moments and our "stupid" stretches, whether we're deemed to be smart or not. That's certainly true for me as I look back on my life. My "Eureka!" experiences pale in significance and scale compared to all of the dunderhead blunders I've committed...yet there's something almost divine or supernatural during those rare instances when everything seems to come together into focus and a new, foundational idea or principle occurs to me. I've noticed this probably the most in the past during my usually frustrating experiences in school, especially during different math classes in which the teacher would stand at the front of the students presenting the material and suddenly, out of the blue, I would "get it". Like Einstein, I was generally a mediocre-to-average math student (although I consistently scored high in it on the various standardized tests we students were subjected to) ...and I'm not too happy with the quality level of teaching I was dealt in school regarding this field. But I digress...
Sometimes a genius moment doesn't involve understanding or creating a complex idea...it can be the opposite when I figure out how to simplify things to a level that makes my life more manageable. Being a person of routine, I am looking for ways to integrate the various things I want to accomplish within the framework of a day or week...not abstract physics, but still something that involves the management of chaos, to a degree. And that's where I think most of the genius of humanity is expressed: not in great works of art, music, literature, engineering, or science, but rather in the multitude of adjustments, discoveries, and innovations people make in their daily lives, ingenious little things that generally go unnoticed by the rest of the world. Yet I sadly acknowledge that, in the midst of all this good stuff, the stupidity I see in that world seems limitless...
Thursday, May 16, 2019
Just Finished Reading Fear by Bob Woodward
Renowned investigative journalist Bob Woodward, who in 1973 collaborated with his Washington Post colleague Carl Bernstein to uncover the Nixon administration's Watergate scandal, came out last year with a new book: Fear. It portrays Donald Trump, both on the campaign trail and in a little more than the first year of his presidency, from the experiences of people working for and with him over that period. Woodward claims to have interviewed hundreds and employed strict journalism standards with this project. When it first came out last September, the main things that were publicized were critical of Trump, with examples of his aides and cabinet members regularly insulting him behind his back while surreptitiously undercutting his authority in light of what they regarded as his impulsive and harmful decisions. The President's backers...as well as Donald Trump himself...predictably panned Fear while his detractors jumped on the most scurrilous passages to point out Trump's unfitness for this high office. My reactions?
Fear is generally presented in a chronological fashion, touching upon the different events in the Trump campaign, the transition period, and his early presidency as different people floated in and out of close association with him. The way Woodward paints it, Steve Bannon of Breitbart was crucial in keeping Trump's campaign on track during crisis moments when others were throwing in the towel, as well as encouraging him to stick with the promises he made to his political base after taking office. Eventually Bannon would go his own way and leave the administration, which turned into a massive revolving door for staff and cabinet. Trump, not a reader and possessing a very short attention span, would not even stay attentive beyond a few minutes to those briefing him on various important issues, and would often agree with his advisors on a particular issue only to Tweet a completely different policy soon thereafter...Senator Chuck Schumer characterized this trait of his as like "negotiating with Jell-O". Trump also demanded complete loyalty from everyone around him while showing little in return. And the capper was that he was a compulsive liar, saying whatever he thought fit the moment regardless whether it was true or not...this trait of his convinced his then-personal attorney John M. Dowd to strongly urge him not to allow independent counsel Robert Mueller to interview him. Dowd was convinced...and I believe confirmed in his belief...that Mueller did not have evidence in his Russian investigation to charge Trump with either conspiracy or obstruction, and that his main motive was to trap the President on perjury. And since he saw Donald Trump as a natural born liar, his attorney knew that Mueller would get him on that...
I recommend Fear, unless of course you've already made up your mind about Donald Trump and won't allow anything to change your narrative. It tends, in my opinion, to exonerate him from the Russian controversy and explain his suspicious behavior in that area in terms of just being his own self: an extremely narcissistic, selfish and immature boy-man who never admits to being wrong and who never learned that lying is not a good thing. His propensity for throwing people under the bus makes me marvel as to why anyone would want to work for him...unless they're masochists, that is. By the way, the book's title is based on one of Trump's espoused tenets: for leadership to work effectively, an atmosphere of fear must be cultivated...
Fear is generally presented in a chronological fashion, touching upon the different events in the Trump campaign, the transition period, and his early presidency as different people floated in and out of close association with him. The way Woodward paints it, Steve Bannon of Breitbart was crucial in keeping Trump's campaign on track during crisis moments when others were throwing in the towel, as well as encouraging him to stick with the promises he made to his political base after taking office. Eventually Bannon would go his own way and leave the administration, which turned into a massive revolving door for staff and cabinet. Trump, not a reader and possessing a very short attention span, would not even stay attentive beyond a few minutes to those briefing him on various important issues, and would often agree with his advisors on a particular issue only to Tweet a completely different policy soon thereafter...Senator Chuck Schumer characterized this trait of his as like "negotiating with Jell-O". Trump also demanded complete loyalty from everyone around him while showing little in return. And the capper was that he was a compulsive liar, saying whatever he thought fit the moment regardless whether it was true or not...this trait of his convinced his then-personal attorney John M. Dowd to strongly urge him not to allow independent counsel Robert Mueller to interview him. Dowd was convinced...and I believe confirmed in his belief...that Mueller did not have evidence in his Russian investigation to charge Trump with either conspiracy or obstruction, and that his main motive was to trap the President on perjury. And since he saw Donald Trump as a natural born liar, his attorney knew that Mueller would get him on that...
I recommend Fear, unless of course you've already made up your mind about Donald Trump and won't allow anything to change your narrative. It tends, in my opinion, to exonerate him from the Russian controversy and explain his suspicious behavior in that area in terms of just being his own self: an extremely narcissistic, selfish and immature boy-man who never admits to being wrong and who never learned that lying is not a good thing. His propensity for throwing people under the bus makes me marvel as to why anyone would want to work for him...unless they're masochists, that is. By the way, the book's title is based on one of Trump's espoused tenets: for leadership to work effectively, an atmosphere of fear must be cultivated...
Wednesday, May 15, 2019
Weekly Short Stories: 1946 Science Fiction, Part 4
I conclude my look back at 1946, the year following the end of World War II and the explosions of nuclear bombs over Hiroshima and Nagasaki, as it was reflected in the world of science fiction short story literature. The retrospective anthology I'm using is Isaac Asimov Presents The Great SF Stories 6 (1946). And without further ado, here are my reactions to the final four tales from this book...
EVIDENCE by Isaac Asimov
This story is an example of an author creating his or her own literary universe, with its own history and characters...and then capitalizing on that creation with stories set within it. Asimov wrote extensively about robots...and roboticist Dr. Susan Calvin. In Evidence popular opinion has turned strongly against the presence of robots on Earth in spite of the Three Laws of Robotics that ensure goodwill toward humans on the part of all positronic robots. Stephen Byerley is running for elective office and his opponent, Francis Quinn, strongly suspects him of being a robot...intending to capitalize on the population's strong opposition to them to defeat him. But how can he prove his accusation? Dr. Calvin steps in to figure it all out in her own ingenious, sly way...
ABSALOM by Henry Kuttner
A series of generational mutations is progressively creating a superhuman race among a minority of the population. A father, himself a second-generation mutant, fears that his ten-year-old son Absalom will soon be as mentally superior to him as he was to his own father...and the generational struggle between the two dominates the story. This is one of those tales where the final line is the most memorable part...
MEWHU'S JET by Theodore Sturgeon
A couple with their toddler daughter are vacationing out in the woods in their cottage when their roof gets ripped off suddenly by a falling object...it turns out to be an alien named Mewhu on his special portable jet device. This catlike humanoid creature, very intelligent in his own right, quickly befriends them and helps them use the jet to repair the house. And little Molly seems to have a special rapport with Mewhu...there seems to be something telepathic between them. Just what kind of civilization does Mewhu represent and how role does he play in it? The answers are implied toward the story's end...a very sweet little tale about first contact...reminded me a bit of E.T.....
TECHNICAL ERROR by Arthur C. Clarke
A very powerful generator operating on principles of superconductivity is being put into use for the first time. Engineer Richard Nelson finds himself standing in the wrong place at the wrong time when something goes very wrong during its startup...he comes out unscathed, at least until it becomes revealed that he has become his mirror image...all the way down to his molecular structure. And that causes a great number of problems as Clarke gives the reader a short lesson not only about the nature of organic chemistry but that the unseen very small determines the ultimate reality of our world and our lives...
Next week I start with the year 1947 in science fiction short stories...
EVIDENCE by Isaac Asimov
This story is an example of an author creating his or her own literary universe, with its own history and characters...and then capitalizing on that creation with stories set within it. Asimov wrote extensively about robots...and roboticist Dr. Susan Calvin. In Evidence popular opinion has turned strongly against the presence of robots on Earth in spite of the Three Laws of Robotics that ensure goodwill toward humans on the part of all positronic robots. Stephen Byerley is running for elective office and his opponent, Francis Quinn, strongly suspects him of being a robot...intending to capitalize on the population's strong opposition to them to defeat him. But how can he prove his accusation? Dr. Calvin steps in to figure it all out in her own ingenious, sly way...
ABSALOM by Henry Kuttner
A series of generational mutations is progressively creating a superhuman race among a minority of the population. A father, himself a second-generation mutant, fears that his ten-year-old son Absalom will soon be as mentally superior to him as he was to his own father...and the generational struggle between the two dominates the story. This is one of those tales where the final line is the most memorable part...
MEWHU'S JET by Theodore Sturgeon
A couple with their toddler daughter are vacationing out in the woods in their cottage when their roof gets ripped off suddenly by a falling object...it turns out to be an alien named Mewhu on his special portable jet device. This catlike humanoid creature, very intelligent in his own right, quickly befriends them and helps them use the jet to repair the house. And little Molly seems to have a special rapport with Mewhu...there seems to be something telepathic between them. Just what kind of civilization does Mewhu represent and how role does he play in it? The answers are implied toward the story's end...a very sweet little tale about first contact...reminded me a bit of E.T.....
TECHNICAL ERROR by Arthur C. Clarke
A very powerful generator operating on principles of superconductivity is being put into use for the first time. Engineer Richard Nelson finds himself standing in the wrong place at the wrong time when something goes very wrong during its startup...he comes out unscathed, at least until it becomes revealed that he has become his mirror image...all the way down to his molecular structure. And that causes a great number of problems as Clarke gives the reader a short lesson not only about the nature of organic chemistry but that the unseen very small determines the ultimate reality of our world and our lives...
Next week I start with the year 1947 in science fiction short stories...
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